| "Emotional intelligence" is the term used to | | | | Improved emotional self-awareness allows us to |
| describe someone's emotional awareness and | | | | imagine with greater accuracy what the emotional |
| control (over oneself and others), much like IQ | | | | world of other people must be like. If I |
| measures someone's analytical intelligence. | | | | experience anger and fear when my boss yells at |
| Developed by psychologists in the 1980s, | | | | me at work, it makes sense that my |
| emotional intelligence has allowed business leaders | | | | subordinates most likely experience anger and |
| to excel at interpersonal activities and lead their | | | | fear when I yell at them. Instead of merely |
| organizations on a more personal, more human | | | | repeating behaviors that fail to work merely |
| level. | | | | because I've had them done to me, I can decide |
| Since firms are simply people organized around a | | | | how I want to treat others based on the |
| common purpose (think of an organization as | | | | emotional results I am expecting. |
| having its own tacit or explicit "culture"), | | | | Empathy is the ability to understand or share in |
| understanding how the people in your organization | | | | the feelings of another, without confusing the |
| respond emotionally and what motivates them to | | | | boundary between self and other. Empathy |
| achievement has the potential to yield a huge | | | | differs from sympathy in that you understand |
| increase productivity and profitability. Of course | | | | what the other person feels (e.g., anxiety) rather |
| people are emotional even when it would be more | | | | than feeling bad for them due to their emotional |
| convenient that they were not. When coupled | | | | suffering. Furthermore, empathy differs from |
| with the functional and technical skills of a smart, | | | | projecting, or assigning your assumed or |
| highly analytic individual, an awareness of the | | | | expected emotions onto another person, in that |
| emotional lives of fellow employees, customers, | | | | you take the time to cultivate an understanding |
| partners-and yourself-gives you, as an insightful | | | | of where the other person is coming from and |
| manager, an advantage that is hard to find | | | | get to know how they actually feel, not how they |
| elsewhere. | | | | ought to feel, given their beliefs, temperament, |
| Emotional intelligence can be thought of as a skill, | | | | upbringing, and so forth. |
| much like playing a musical instrument. While some | | | | In other words, being empathetic means that you |
| people learn to play violin using the Suzuki method | | | | do not assume that everyone is identical, but |
| at age five, most people pick up the instrument | | | | make an educated guess about the likely |
| as a young person and improve as they grow | | | | emotional response of a person to your actions |
| older. Some are more talented than others, to be | | | | and then you check in with him or her. True |
| sure; but the essential determinant of whether a | | | | empathy involves talking with someone to get a |
| musician is skillful is practice. Emotional intelligence, | | | | better sense of their emotional experience of the |
| like musical proficiency, can be improved with | | | | world. |
| continued practice. | | | | |